In the photographic industry dispersions (usually termed emulsions) of silver halides are prepared and are coated onto film or paper supports. These dispersions are prepared by a complicated process having a significant number of steps and generally involving storage of the dispersion before it is used as a coating material.
The transport of liquids around a system using vessels which move from place to place in the system is used in automated analytical techniques such as are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,383,041 and 4,692,308 and in beverage vending machines such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,995,158. The movement of materials around "pipeless" chemical plants using vessels travelling about the plants has been described in general terms by a number of Japanese authors:
1. "Multipurpose Pipeless Reaction-Mixing System"--T. Shimada, S. Omoto, A. Nakamoto & O. Funamoto--Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.; PA1 2. "Multipurpose Pipeless Reaction/Mixing System"--T. Shimada, S. Omoto & A. Nakamoto--Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.; PA1 3. "Demonstration of Pipeless Chemical Plant"--K. Takahashi, H. Fujii, K. Shima & O. Okuda--Toyo Engineering Co. Ltd.; and PA1 4. "Towards AI Batch Plants--A Proposal of Pipeless Chemical Plant `MILOX`"--K. Takahashi, H. Fujii, K. Shima & O. Okuda--Toyo Engineering Co. Ltd. PA1 (i) reduced costs through reductions in labour, waste, inventories and eliminated processes; and PA1 (ii) reduced cycle time giving flexibility and competitive advantage through small units, and through accelerated product introduction by eliminating scale-up
Such plants, which are advocated for use in multiproduct - small volume systems, are not described in great detail.